Doomsday

An expert on mood disorders from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and the co-author of one of the most read textbooks in the field, Manic Depressive Illness, Kay Redfield Jamison, once detailed her experiences with and expertise in bipolar affective disorder (subtype I), and suicide in an interview with Charlie Rose. When asked about her suicide attempt, Jamison told Rose that in an episode of severe clinical depression, “the first thing that hits you is hopelessness.”
After having read many books about the personal experiences of those with psychiatric illnesses and suicidal tendencies, and having known many who have gone through spectrum of mood disorders, I wondered what a world without any hope—without even the hope of suicide for a dignified death—would look like for its inhabitants. A complete loss of hope in the absence of any real cause seemed like a very interesting Doomsday scenario. Continue Reading »

The Road is a very emotionally gripping book and, at many times, I was tempted to put it down because the images were too gruesome, the lack of compassion forced upon the characters because of a need to survive was hard to read, and the utter hopelessness of their situation was too much to bear. As I mentioned last week, I believe that it was inhumane for the father to keep his son alive under these circumstances and that suicide would have been the most compassionate and rational thing to do. However, after reading the end of this story, I am not so sure if I agree with what I said last week.  Perhaps, when faced with adversity, we do have to do everything to make sure we survive because we never know when things might start getting better or if all hope is absolutely lost. Maybe, if all humans responded to catastrophe by committing suicide, the human race would have died out eons ago. Responding to this crisis in the way that this man and his son did, by taking “the Road” and by not giving up, they are doing their part to continue humanity. Although there may no one left to appreciate the struggle that the father, son, and those like them went through at the end of this ordeal, this may have been the “right” thing to do. They are carrying “the light” even if their dreams may not be attainable because they have not given up on the hope for a more decent life in a distant future for their descendants. I am reminded of another song by Regina Spektor called “Apres Moi” which contains the line “‘I’m not my own, it’s not my choice” (although the song is not explicit, I believe that it is talking about suicide). Perhaps, suicide is selfish, even in this situation, because it is robbing potential offspring from a life. In the end of this story, there is hope because  the son from “the Road” and a young girl have been brought together: I almost believe that the father’s sacrifice may have been worthwhile. Finally, although I agree with Simone that the ending is a bit lackluster, I am not really sure if the story could really end in any other way (in my opinion, having both the son and the father die would have been a waste of the reader’s time and having the father live would have been too happy an ending for this book).

So far, after reading the first 150 pages of The Road, I find that the most striking aspect of the story was this one line — “are we still the good guys?” One of the elements of Apocalypse we frequently discuss in class is the concept of the Good “us” versus the Bad “them.” Traditionally, the Bad “them” is to be punished and suffer the wrath of God (or some other divine power) with the coming of the end of the world and the Good “us” will survive to see New Jerusalem. It is this one belief, that this father and son are the good guys who “carry the fire” that give them any will to go on in a dead, soot-covered, post-Apocalyptic world. The son’s constant question, “are we still the good guys?” is very important after seeing the pair abandon a dying man and a lost young boy to their own devices. It is obvious that in a world where most humans did not survive, there may have been some major changes in morality.

In this story, everyone who survived is living the same horrible life, and there seems to be no real  reason to believe that there hope. The father seems to safely guard the dream that the American South is their New Jerusalem but I have a feeling (from what I have heard about the book before reading it) that this is an empty hope and that they will reach the South only to find everything decimated. In this manner, The Road resembles “On the Beach” more than The Book of Revelation. I almost believe that the most rational thing to have done in this circumstance was to commit suicide– just as the boy’s mother and everyone in “On the Beach” had done. So, this makes me wonder about suicide in times of extreme crisis. Is there a time when suicide may be the best thing? Is the father putting his son through unnecessary suffering by insisting that they keep going on the Road? Is this kind of survival instinct something that should actually be admired, or is it bordering on delusional? Maybe I will be proven wrong later in the book, but for now, I have no hope for these characters.

After reading the ending of Rick Moody’s “The Albertine Notes,” I wish I had something more to say than “wow!” At the end of this novella, I feel a bit disoriented and wonderfully shocked– just something I would imagine coming off of an Albertine high would feel like. This is mostly because of the non-linear form of storytelling Moody takes up in order to match the memories of the protagonist, Kevin Lee. The progression of the story reminds me of the movie “Memento” where the main character has lost the ability to create any new memories and, thus, resorts to tattooing notes on himself and avenging the misremembered murder of his wife several times. Memory is such an important aspect of our lives because, without it, we would have no way of even beginning to create a sense of self.

The issue of a loss of the sense of time is also very interesting in “The Albertine Notes” and makes this story just a little harder to grasp. At one point, Kevin Lee looks at his watch and says that he is amazed that Rolex-knockoff survived the electromagnetic impulse from the Blast. I wonder if  with the catastrophe, the sense of time among the survivors has changed to begin with because many timepieces and electronics that keep us in this fast paced world have been destroyed. Then, when Kevin Lee begins his addiction, this disparity between a “personal” time and the “real” time (which in and of itself is just a construct) evolves.

Finally, I really like the idea of Albertine as drug that can help us live and relive our memories while making us forget partly because it is such a beautiful paradox and partly because it is such a normal human desire. Living in the past is something we already do in order to keep ourselves from having to experience the Present. This drug seems possible in the not-so-distant future and this is just one aspect of this story that makes it a very good science fiction piece.

In the texts we have read and the movies we have seen thus far, how has the issue of “free will” and being helpless in the face of prophecy been addressed? Illustrate your argument with at least three examples.

I will start this post with my most humble opinion— I absolutely hated the first eleven chapters of Glorious Awakening. There were times when the words and, perhaps, the values expressed behind them made me cringe. Since I know that just writing a post on the fact that I hated something is not going to help anyone, I think I will spend the next 250+ words trying to deconstruct why I had such a strong, negative reaction to this piece. First, I felt like the writing was very childish and the characters are caricatures of people—they were a diverse bunch of “believers” who seemed to be diverse in a very superficial fashion. For example, there were “token” characters like Abdullah Smith and Chang who seem to fit certain stereotypes: the “Asian” ends up being the computer geek and Abdullah is a Jordanian who, people are amazed, is actually very smart. However, perhaps I’m missing the depths of these characters because Glorious Awakening is part of a series and the earlier books would probably have explained the characters’ backgrounds. Glorious Awakening read like a young adult novel meant to preach to children—it read like the Book of Revelation written into some modern action movie. Out of all of the works we have read thus far, this is the one that merely interprets the story from Revelation. Moreover, after reading this, I wonder if this is what some evangelicals might actually believe is a possible model for the Apocalypse.  I remember that someone in class said that she had seen the books from this series on the “recommended books” lists in the South and this furthers my view that these books are just propaganda. Perhaps studying the story will tell us more about the lives of those who identify as “Born Again” Christians: I certainly understand the motivation for faith in Jesus Christ as Savior if this is how one views the fate of human kind.

PS. I’m on a flight and I have been watching MSNBC for the past five hours. Apparently, October is “Cult Month” and they are showing documentaries on Jonestown and Wako. I think we should check them out.

In creating You, Out Father-Lover unleashed Sleeping Creation’s Potential for Change. In YOU the Virus of TIME began! – Angel from Tony Kushner’s Angels in America Act II Scene I.

The first organisms produced asexually: they continued the same genetic code so that mother cells and daughter cells were exact clones of one another. The only hope for change one could have were random mutations that occurred in the cell division process. In other words, change was the result of mistakes– this was the exception, and not the rule. However, some of these mistakes ended up being useful to the organism and, so, the organism thrived and the mutation did as well. Eventually, mutations led to a system of sexual reproduction where offspring did not look like their parents and the genetic combinations resulting from the process of sex are practically infinite. Every time one engages in sexual intercourse with the possibility of procreation, one has the potential to change the shape of humanity. Also, when we are not clones of one another, as a species, we develop many different perspectives and problems. Finally, with the imagination to create new solutions for our problems we are no longer living in the world of our parents (ta da! progress).

The God that Tony Kushner portrays in Angels in America reminds me of the relationship some parents have with their children. God, like our parents, created us but he/she/it/they do not seem to have the foresight to know where our lives will take us: he/she/it/they do not know what to do when their creation has “gone astray.” At this point, some parents disown their children while seems to have abandoned them. However, if the Creator /Parent (knowingly or unknowingly) endows their children with the ability for progress, they have to accept the fact that, one day, they will no longer be their children. The baby a mother has given birth to will eventually turn into a saint, a criminal, or something in between just as God’s first amoeba gave way to Mozart and Einstein.

Finally, without progress, time would be irrelevant. We use time as a way to measure and predict change. However, in the tradition of a linear sense of time, with time comes the end of time. Thus, in some way, progress is both a precursor to the Apocalypse and the reason why humanity drifts away from god: no wonder why so many are afraid of it.

Tony Kushner’s Angels in America consists of two plays/parts—“The Millennium Approaches” and “Perestroika.” This particular post is going to focus on the events of the first part rather than the second.
In the mid-1980’s, when Kushner wrote this series, with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) hardly a decade old, this virus and the debilitating disease it created was bound to be the new trigger of world destruction. Moreover, since gay men were one of the high-risk groups and gays were already seen as morally deficient by the Christian right, AIDS appeared to those who believed as the ultimate punishment from God.
In Angels in America, Kushner give Prior Walter the privilege of being a Prophet of sorts. It is interesting that the Man who is to spread God’s Word himself was killed by the “pestilence” that many in mainstream America have seen as a result of God’s wrath. Two of the Prior Walters before the Prior Walter we meet in the story come to him before his death and tell him that he is to be the Messenger, or the Prophet.
Moreover, Prior is called upon to spread the Message that God does not want humans to procreate anymore – a message that is fitting for a Gay Prophet. It also makes a lot of scene that, if God wanted humans to stop procreating that He would create a very deadly sexually transmitted disease (STD) that could kill many.
However, in “Perestroika,” he wrestles “the Angel” who brings the Prophecy to him. In doing so he, Prior, invokes the image that Joe tells his wife about the experience of his life being a struggle (presumably because he was a homosexual man living in a strict Mormon society): in an earlier scene Joe tells Harper that he keeps remembering a scene when the biblical figure Jacob is wrestling an angel from a book he had as a child.
Kushner’s Angels in America, at least for the first half, seems to be recounting the days that look like the Armageddon for the gay community.

The Hindu version of the Apocalypse is not very apocalyptic, in the sense that it does not involve a revelation at all. Moreover, what Hindus mean when they imagine the end of the world is an apocalypse, not the Apocalypse.

Hindus of the Vedic period (about 1000 BCE) tended to believe that time is cyclical and that there are four yugas (or eras) the world goes through before going meeting destruction.

The first is Sathya Yuga—an era when the bull of Dharma (righteousness) is standing firmly on all four legs and mankind is inherently good. Then there is the Threta Yuga when the bull is on three feet, the Duapara Yuga when the bull is on two feet and, finally, the Kali Yuga when the bull is struggling on its last foot. In the Kali Yuga, people are said to become atheistic and morally bankrupt. The human condition is to become so despicable that the only hope it has is an apocalypse and this devastation comes from an avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu named Kalki (and yes, he is on a white horse too).

However, if morals are the basis for gauging the distance between human life and total destruction, In Vedic India, marrying a prepubescent girl is perfectly within their construct of dharma and refusing to stay within the boundaries of one’s caste was considered adharma (not righteous). This distant culture followed a moral code that we would disagree with at the least and be disgusted by at the worst. Looking at our society, the Hindus of the Vedic era (even Hindus of the present era) believe that Kalki is near.

My point here is that different cultures of different times have different apocalyptic stories. Even in the Judeo-Christian tradition, Elizabeth Rosen mentions, that the story of the Apocalypse has changed: we seem to place more emphasis on the Destruction and not on what is supposed to come after. The Watchmen by Alan Moore is a more likely story in our present day than John’s Revelatory Visions. Moreover, the character of the newsvendor in The Watchmen referred to the Book of Revolutions instead of Revelations—telling because the events of the book were partially a reaction to the political climate at the time.

Finally, Rosen says that stories about the End are as significant as stories about the Creation in the psyches of culture. As our ideas about where we come from change, so do our ideas about where we are going.

Here is a picture of Kalki, the tenth reincarnation of Vishnu, on a white horse.

Until a few years ago I laughed at the words, “don’t drink the Kool Aid.” Although I did not understand the reference, I imagined what it could mean. In my mind I had created stories of someone slipping GHB or disgusting bodily fluids into an, otherwise, normal glass of Kool Aid. It was only after I saw a documentary on Jonestown a few months that I realized that 909 people died in Jonestown, Guyana in 1978, and that many of these victims drank grape-flavored Kool Aid that was laced with potassium cyanide. Jim Jones, the “father” of this movement had already held various suicide drills in this negative Utopia that was Jonestown before the actual event. The picture below was seared into my mind the night I watched the film and I still have trouble looking at it.

(Taken from http://img.timeinc.net/time/photoessays/2008/jonestown/jonestown_06.jpg

There were a few excerpts from his speech (call to suicide) that, I felt, relate to our assignments from this week: (transcript from http://jonestown.sdsu.edu/AboutJonestown/Tapes/Tapes/DeathTape/death.html watch this for speech):

1. I want to go–I want to see you go, though…. It’s not to be afeared. It is not to be feared. It is a friend. It’s a friend … sitting there, show your love for one another. Let’s get gone.

Strozier says in his Apocalypse that Evangelicals tend to like to imagine their death as part of a group (67). This explicit desire that he has to see others die with him is perverse but, in a way, very common. Here, he calls dying together a show of love. Moreover, he says that the group must die in peace because they cannot live in peace. He paints death itself as a sort of rapture.

2. Lay down your life with dignity. Don’t lay down with tears and agony. There’s nothing to death…. It’s just stepping over to another plane. Don’t be this way. Stop this hysterics…. No way for us to die. We must die with some dignity. We must die with some dignity. We will have no choice. Now we have some choice.…

The choice that Jim Jones is referring to, the choice of not having to face the real consequences of the world around him, reminds me of the “Duck and Cover” video. Here, children are being told that if they just “duck and cover” when they see a flash (even if all they have to cover themselves with is a thin piece of cloth or paper) that they will be able to escape the horrors of an atomic blast. Obviously, in this situation, neither the children nor their parents have any real agency when it comes to their mortality, this video gives them a false choice. Jones is feeling a similar sense of loss of control and decides to escape what he sees as apocalyptic through suicide